If you missed Attack the Block when it came out during the summer of 2011, don’t feel bad. This British import got good reviews, but flew under the radar and faded pretty quickly. It is mainly known now as the film debut of John Boyega, who leveraged the buzz to snag a role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Personally, I would watch Attack the Block four times before I’d ever screen Star Wars Chapters 7-9 again. It’s fast and clever urban sci-fi, bursting with quirky characters. I’m sure you’ve been busy with other things for the past 14 years, but you owe it to yourself to check out Attack the Block today. It is currently available to watch on Hulu and Pluto TV so grab the Roku, pop some corn, and prepare to couch it up real good.
Attack the Block delivers 90 minutes of B-movie fun with a British accent. Let’s take a moment to praise its brevity. In these days of bloated epics (I’m looking at you, Martin Scorsese), three-hour superhero movies (ahem, MCU) and two-part sagas (hey, that’s you, Wicked people), we have lost the joyous simplicity of a concise story.
Not every flick must be longer than Thanksgiving with your relatives. It’s refreshing to consume a flick without your butt going to sleep. Attack the Block is a zippy alien invasion romp, written and directed by the wily Joe Cornish in his feature debut. This guy gets the job done. There’s setup, delivery, and conclusion. No grandstanding or wasted scenes.
Like a scooter running downhill, it hums along but but don’t let its momentum fool you. The movie exhibits solid storytelling that subtly interjects exposition without bogging things down. Attack the Block takes place over one night in a dodgy section of South London. The setting is Guy Fawkes Day a.k.a. Bonfire Night, which is kind of like England’s version of the Fourth of July, except it commemorates domestic terrorism.
Rookie nurse Sam (played by future Dr. Who Jodie Whittaker) is just getting off work. She gets mugged by a gang of unruly teens, but the robbery is interrupted by a meteorite landing on a nearby car. Sam gets away. The leader of this gang, Moses (Boyega exhibiting more swagger than he ever did in those Star Wars movies), starts searching the destroyed vehicle when he is attacked by a small alien creature.
He and his boys chase it down, and Moses kills the vicious critter. They take the body, which obviously crash-landed on Earth from the meteorite, to their buddy Ron (Nick Frost from Shaun of the Dead). They want his advice on selling the carcass to the tabloids. Ron’s in the know because he’s a grownup and a businessman. Okay, he’s the local pot dealer who has a grow house in his spare room, but he’s still a grownup, so that counts.
Ron takes Moses into the weed room to chat with his boss. Hi-Hatz is a gang banger who runs all the illegal trade in the neighborhood. He takes no stock in aliens, but he does think Moses has potential, so he hires him to sell weed. As Moses is celebrating his new vocation, he and his crew see the sky lit up with shooting stars.
They know it’s more aliens descending, but the rest of the city just assumes it’s fireworks because that’s what happens on Bonfire Night. It’s time to kick some extraterrestrial butt, so they run home to load up on weapons. Since they’re kids, they gear up with fireworks, baseball bats, and ninja swords (someone talk to that kid’s parents!). They track one of the aliens down to the local playground, but this E.T. is bigger and really ticked off.
It’s like a wolf-gorilla monster with thick black fur and jagged teeth that glow in the dark. After a quick run-in with the cops and an accidental meet-up with Hi-Hatz, both ending in alien mayhem, the guys return to their apartment building and seek shelter by barging in on Sam. Now realizing that they’d been harassing a neighbor, they form an uneasy alliance to take on the alien invaders. They band together as those nasty buggers converge on the building.
Attack the Block is Aliens meets Goonies with a smidge of New Jack City and narrated by rowdy South London voices. Writer/Director Cornish’s cock-eyed style is sly, quick, and devilishly fun. Moses and his crew defend themselves against these malicious furballs while evading the police and Hi-Hatz, who thinks they have run off with his stash.
These blokes can’t catch a break! They go from apartment to apartment fighting aliens with kitchen knives, broken lamps, and ice skate blades. Meanwhile, Nick Frost’s Ron and his crony, the stoner academic Brewis (Luke Treadaway from the Clash of the Titans remake), provide comic relief and sly commentary. They drop major plot points without slowing down the action or being overly talky.
The reason why the aliens stay contained within the building makes perfect sense, as does the setting during Guy Fawkes Night. Attack the Block has a shaggy dog charm, a magnetic cast, and a whipsmart script. Boyega delivers a star-making turn. He’s ably supported by the entire cast, especially Frost, Treadaway, and Alex Esmail as Pest, Boyega’s #1 toadie.
They help make this flick the breeziest sci-fi movie I’ve seen in 20 years. Attack the Block can stand proudly next to other sterling British genre films like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead. Check it out now on streaming and see for yourself. This flick is legit. It should have made Boyega a marquee name and secured a franchise deal for its writer/director.
I thought they’d both be a bigger deal, but good movies don’t always guarantee legendary status. Boyega was underutilized in Star Wars and Cornish has since co-written Ant-Man and only directed one more movie. There are rumors that they are reuniting for a sequel. If that happens, let’s hope that the second wave is just as swift and brilliant as this first attack.
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Author: Jeff Stanford
Nerd Dad who loves his family, coffee and movies.
